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Tonight

Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask Is helped off the ice by teammates after being hit by the Rangers’ Filip Chytil during the first period at TD Garden on Saturday night. Chytil scored on the play, and Rask was concussed. New York won, 3-2.

Break gives Bruins' Rask some time

Bruins goaltender Tuukka Rask Is helped off the ice by teammates after being hit by the Rangers’ Filip Chytil during the first period at TD Garden on Saturday night. Chytil scored on the play, and Rask was concussed. New York won, 3-2.

In Saturday night’s 3-2 loss to the Rangers at TD Garden, goalie Tuukka Rask suffered a concussion on a play late in the first period, resulting in a goal from Filip Chytil to tie the game. He left the ice with the help of two players, went down the tunnel and didn’t return.

The bigger story, regardless of the outcome heading into the break, is Rask. The team announced late in the second period the goalie suffered a concussion. He made six saves on the seven shots he saw in the frame.

“He’s concussed,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Best-case scenario is usually the next day, if he’s doing well, if he’s up and running he shouldn’t be too badly affected by it. ... If he’s not, then it’s one of those you just keep your fingers crossed.”

Jaroslav Halak replaced Rask following the Chytil goal and collision, which happened with 1:28 left in the first period, and allowed two goals on 13 shots.

Rask was 6-0-1 in his last seven contests and riding his best stretch of hockey of the season since he took his leave of absence in November. The stroke of misfortune for the Bruins, injury-wise, had appeared to dissipate with the majority of the roster back following an early season rut of ailments.

Before the injury Saturday night, the Bruins had plenty of reason to feel good.

Danton Heinen, continuing to make hockey plays despite a lack of scoring, was strong on the puck to keep it in the Bruins offensive end late in the first period. He sent it along the wall for Jakob Forsbacka Karlsson, who wrestled it away from Brett Howden, and found Heinen crashing the net for his sixth goal of the season 17:28 into the frame.

The lead, and any after-goal jubilation, was short-lived.

Chytil, who was checked by Charlie McAvoy while driving to the net, knotting the game at 1-1 with 1:28 left. But Chytil collided with Rask up high. The goalie was down on the ice for a few moments before McAvoy and David Pastrnak helped him off the ice.

“His intention was clearly to go to the net hard,” McAvoy said. “We try to do that too. I don’t know how much my part in the play results in that contact, I didn’t shove him. Maybe he just bounced off me. I feel like he was going to hit him anyways.”

With 14:38 left in the second, Rangers leading scorer Mika Zibanejad notched his 16th goal of the season to put them ahead 2-1.

Brad Marchand tapped home a pass from Pastrnak across the crease just 3:24 into the third to tie the game up again.

Zibanejad didn’t take long to respond with his second goal. Just 5:29 later, he took advantage of a Zdeno Chara delay of game penalty, blasting a shot past Halak for the 3-2 lead.

Former Bruin Adam McQuaid dropped the gloves with Chris Wagner late after Wagner collided with Jesper Fast in the Bruins attacking zone and Fast went down hard. McQuaid was called for being third man in, and the Bruins earned a late power play with just over four minutes to play, but they didn’t score.

The Bruins’ power play struggles continued, going scoreless in another four-minute double-minor in the first period a few minutes after another early failed man advantage. They went 0-for-5 overall.

“Not the week that we wanted to have,” Marchand said. “We need to be better. We had an opportunity late in the game.”

Rask, who tied Tiny Thompson for most goalie wins in franchise history in Thursday’s victory over St. Louis, will have the extended break to recover. The Bruins will have the next 9 days off and won’t play again until they host Winnipeg on Jan. 29.